Smart virtual power plants for the future electric grid – realization and benefits

The smart virtual power plants (VPP) concept introduced in this paper is envisioned as major component of the future electric grid. Large scale integration of distributed energy resources has introduced many technical and economic challenges. The VPP concept has the potential to resolve these issues and function as a major power station. The individual players in the VPP collectively work as one unit, ensured by distributed control algorithms. The VPP has a forecast and analytics component, and an electrical systems component. The forecaster generates dispatch schedules for each player in the VPP and the loads. The electrical systems controllers use the dispatch schedule to regulate power flows from individual players. An example VPP with photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems is…